Grading Texas

Educators need to be wary of pension “reformers”

The Teacher Retirement System of Texas is one of the strongest public pension systems in the country and with the continued hard work of educators and prudent policy decisions, it will remain that way. But public pension systems in general remain under political attack, as we are reminded by a recent appointment that Gov. Greg Abbott made to the State Pension Review Board, which oversees state and local government retirement systems.

Abbott named Josh McGee, a vice president of the Houston-based Laura and John Arnold Foundation, to the board. This is the same John Arnold, a former Enron trader, who wants to replace defined-benefit pensions, such as TRS, with risky 401(k)-style plans. Instead of safeguarding an educator’s well-earned retirement benefits, he would have a teacher roll the dice on a 401(k) that could vanish shortly before retirement if the stock market took another plunge.

The Combined Law Enforcement Association of Texas (CLEAT) has asked Abbott to rescind McGee’s appointment because the group fears he will try to abolish police pensions. McGee’s anti-pension agenda, however, may be broader than that. He may not want to stop with the police.

Even though CLEAT backed Abbott for governor, there is no reason to expect Abbott to change his appointment. There is reason, though, to be wary of pension ideas coming from anyone affiliated with John Arnold.

http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2015/12/law-enforcement-group-urges-gov-abbott-to-rescind-pension-board-appointment.html/

Trying to save the fourth R in the school day

Remember when the four Rs were an essential part of every school day? Those were the long-ago days before school kids – and their teachers – were saddled with excessive standardized testing and excessive hand-wringing over how kids in Finland did better on test scores than we did.

Are you old enough to even remember the four Rs? They were, of course, reading, ‘riting, ‘rithmetic – and recess.

Public school students still are taught the first three Rs, although sometimes by different names. But the fourth R has become an endangered species in some schools, dropped from the school day for various reasons, including – you guessed it – to provide more time to prepare students for testing.

Now, we may be seeing an effort to revive the fourth R, at least in Dallas ISD, where trustee Dan Micciche is recommending a policy change to require recess for students in prekindergarten through fifth grade at least once a day in all the district’s elementary schools.

According to The Dallas Morning News, Micciche also said that physical education classes, which are structured, should not substitute for recess, where children are given an opportunity to take a break to play with friends and other classmates, or just relax.

“Numerous studies have discussed the importance of recess in improving social and emotional health and learning,” he said.

And, he could have added, relieving the stress of too many standardized tests.

http://educationblog.dallasnews.com/2015/12/dallas-isd-trustee-wants-daily-recess-in-elementary-schools-do-you-agree.html/

Politics and education are personal

With all the misstatements, lies and sophomoric shenanigans that have become standard fare in many political campaigns, it may be increasingly difficult for educators to take politics seriously, much less personally. But in an open letter to her governor, an Indiana teacher spelled out exactly why she takes politics personally, and Texas educators would be wise to hear her out.

With only a few modifications, her letter, linked below, could be sent to Gov. Greg Abbott and many state legislators because the Texas and Indiana political records on supporting public education are similarly lackluster.

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence recently angered educators in his state by reportedly telling teachers that they shouldn’t take it personally if their students’ grades dropped on new, more difficult standardized tests, even if their evaluations — and professional futures — were linked to the test scores. (Pence is supporting legislation to unlink teacher evaluations for a year because the tests are new, but the legislation hasn’t passed yet.)

You may say this isn’t relevant to me because my school district doesn’t link test scores to teacher evaluations and compensation. Some Texas districts, however, do tie evaluations to test scores, and depending on who gets elected to the Legislature next year, every district could be required to do so by the 2017-18 school year.

In any event, Donna Roof, a veteran Indiana teacher and public education advocate, felt inspired to point out why she took the governor’s remarks and policies personally – over excessive testing, crowded classrooms, inadequate funding, disrespect for teachers’ expertise and other issues that the governor and other politicians have foisted upon Indiana educators and students.

Sounding more familiar now, I bet. Her list could have been written by Texas teachers – and, with a few changes, should be.

Gov. Abbott claims to be a champion of education but so far, except to promote a limited pre-kindegarten program, hasn’t done a lot to prove it. He still resists calls for adequate and equitable school funding and, during last spring’s legislative session, demonstrated a preference for tax cuts and highways over schools.

Tell our governor you take it personally when he and other state leaders continue to neglect public schools in favor of over-testing, privatization and lip service. The first link is to an online message form for Gov. Abbott’s office. The second link is to Donna Roof’s letter to her governor.

https://gov.texas.gov/contact/assistance.aspx

http://neifpe.blogspot.com/2015/11/dont-take-it-personally.html

Worry about school funding, not test scores

The state’s most prominent business group – which thinks excessive testing is more important to academic success than adequate school funding – is hyperventilating again. This time, it is because the Texas Legislature and some school districts gave a few thousand high school seniors the opportunity to graduate without passing all their end-of-course exams.

The students passed at least three of the five EOC exams, successfully completed all their required coursework and were deemed deserving of their diplomas by their teachers and principals. But in the eyes of the Texas Association of Business (TAB), the sky is once again falling on public education in Texas.

In truth, one of the biggest obstacles to public education in Texas is the Texas Association of Business and similar special interest groups that keeping wringing their hands over test scores while doing nothing to convince the legislative majority to adequately fund public schools.

In 2011, TAB did little, if anything, to discourage the legislative majority from slashing $5.4 billion from school budgets and was mostly silent while thousands of school employees lost their jobs and thousands of students were shoved into overcrowded classrooms.

During last spring’s session, even though many school districts haven’t recovered from the 2011 cuts, TAB successfully lobbied for a multi-billion-dollar cut in future business taxes – an important source of education funding – while lawmakers left several billion additional tax dollars unspent in the bank. TAB also supported the new A-F grading system for school campuses, which will do little more than stigmatize low-income students who suffer the most from inadequate school funding.

But whenever students in under-funded classrooms turn in lackluster STAAR scores, you can count on the folks at TAB to wail, professing more concern about the accountability of third-graders than they do about the accountability of legislators.

And, now they are wailing over the initial results of a new law to let some high school seniors graduate if they fail one or two of the five required end-of-course tests, provided that is the only obstacle to their graduation. That have to complete all their other required coursework and be approved by a special graduation committee that includes the student’s principal, the teacher of the course for which the student failed the EOC exam, a curriculum department chair and a parent or guardian.

The law, which went into effect last spring and will expire after the 2016-17 school year, if the Legislature doesn’t renew it, is a good idea. Since last spring’s graduating class was the first required to pass the EOC tests, Gov. Greg Abbott said it was important to protect students from being penalized by “evolving test standards.”

In reality, the Legislature needs to do even more to reduce the state’s punitive regime of over-testing. But the Texas Association of Business wasn’t pleased with the new, limited law and attempted to survey the largest 100 school districts to see how many graduates got a waiver from passing all the EOC tests. Seventy-eight districts responded, and 71 percent of the 5,578 students who sought the waiver received permission to graduate. TAB President Bill Hammond called that a “shockingly high number.”

Hammond predicted that more students will figure out how to “game the system” and graduate unprepared for college or the work force.

But if Hammond and other business leaders really care about the qualifications of high school graduates, they wouldn’t be as alarmed about kids potentially “gaming” the testing system as they are about the legislative majority under-nourishing the entire educational system with inadequate funding. That’s the bottom line.

http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2015/11/survey-waivers-let-thousands-graduate-from-texas-high-schools-despite-failed-end-of-course-exams.html/

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